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I'm not setting up a top ten for Paul Chryst's weekly press conference this week, but I did want to share some thoughts on a few things he said.
One minor thing that kind of irked me was that Chryst began his opening statement by talking about the Iowa game and, in particular, how he was proud of the effort despite the loss. I think that's fine and you don't want to crush your own players, but the key was the team fading down the stretch. Pitt put forth a great effort in the first half and then appeared to get complacent.
There was a lot of talk about quarterback Chad Voytik, but nothing all that important was said. Chryst essentially continued to say he's making strides but has room for improvement.
One interesting thing Chryst addressed was the defensive line not getting a lot of pressure. He mentioned that Iowa's offensive line is pretty good and while that's certainly true, the line still has to improve. One thing that could help slightly is the potential return of David Durham, who played a little against the Hawkeyes, per Sam Werner of the PG.
On Akron, Chryst said he expects them to pass so you can be sure that the defensive game plan will reflect that. As I mentioned in the Akron preview, the Zips really don't have much of a running game, so it will interesting to see how Pitt responds there.
Chryst also addressed the number of pass/run plays called. Overall, he said he'd rather by 70/30 run than 30/70 pass. That's no surprise and is exactly what Pitt has done tot his point. But while fans may want a more balanced offense, when I hear things like that, it's pretty clear that the running game is still the priority. With James Conner, that's probably the way it should be.
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